Broomleigh wrote:
Your younger one won't "benefit" in a year's time, he'll be treated equally alongside all the candidates of the same age. If he doesn't change his attainment level (and particularly in Kent's case, his ability to cope with an extremely long set of tests) between 10 years and 1 month and 10 years and 11 months, I'd be very worried.
As for standardisation being bad because you don't understand how it works, presumably you won't ever get on a plane without 3 years training in aeronautics?
Actually there's a potential benefit if you are younger. Research suggests that September children do better than Summer born kids. Now in a test like the 11+ where you have a 'bright' August born child being compared to others in their cohort that would not have done as well as the older children this would result in a higher standardised mark for that child. Secondly we can see from the raw marks that were posted that the younger kids had higher scores awarded albeit in certain subjects. Finally please find below an extract from GL which further validates that age is an important factor in standardisation of scores.
‘Standard Age Score’. What does this mean?
The Standard Age Score (SAS) is a recognised benchmark against a national or local sample
of students of the same age. It’s the best and fairest way to measure a child’s performance
relative to the other children who took the test.
For a selective system like the 11+, we identify how well the entire group of candidates has
performed. Then, by incorporating an age adjustment that is based on a tried and tested
statistical model
1, we take each child’s age into consideration when awarding a Standard Age
Score. The SAS usually ranges from 69-141.
Standard Age Scores are adjusted to account for the exact age of the pupil – an important
consideration given that the ages in a typical year group will vary by almost 12 months and that
the oldest children will typically achieve higher scores than their younger counterparts. The
SAS also provides a fair comparison between the different tests used, regardless of differences
in test difficulty or length.